Canton grain company surrenders state license
<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">Central Illinois Grain Co. on Wednesday voluntarily surrendered its grain license to the Illinois Department of Agriculture, which suspended the license Dec. 11.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">That development was announced during an administrative hearing at the agency that originally was scheduled to determine whether to reinstate or revoke the license.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">Instead, John Shull, an administrative law judge, said grain company president Lyle Wachtel had notified the Department of Agriculture that the company would return the grain license to the state. </font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">As a result, the state will liquidate Central Illinois Grain's assets to repay its creditors, said Tom Jennings, assistant director of the department.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">Jennings said an informational meeting soon will be scheduled for creditors of the grain company to let them know about the process for filing claims to get paid for their corn. The meeting should be "in the next week or so" in Canton, he said.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">In addition, Department of Agriculture personnel are heading to the grain company's site to take steps to "preserve the grain assets" and prevent the corn from deteriorating, Jennings said.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">Central Illinois Grain has an inventory of about 1.5 million bushels of yellow corn that was supposed to be used for an ethanol-production facility in Canton whose construction has stalled amid financial problems. The grain company is an offshoot of Central Illinois Energy Co., which is building the ethanol plant.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">In a letter dated Dec. 19 to the Department of Agriculture, Wachtel said it "is apparent that the operation of the facility will not occur in the near future."</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">"With the State's recent suspension of the Company's license, it is not possible to liquidate the assets without the help of another grain dealer," his letter added.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">"The Company has not been able to locate a viable successor for the grain in this short period of time and believes that, in the interest of the corn producers, the best course of action is to let the State assist in the orderly liquidation of the inventory as provided by law."</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">No one from the grain company attended the administrative hearing, and Wachtel could not be reached for comment later Wednesday.</font>
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<p class="BODY" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Imperial">Adriana Colindres can be reached at (217) 782-6292 or adriana.colindres@sj-r.com.</font>